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Definition 2024


mzee

mzee

English

Noun

mzee (plural mzees or wazee)

  1. (East Africa) An elder (old person).
    • 2003, Ward S Just, The American Ambassador‎
      ...every President since Teddy Roosevelt saw Africa in the faces of her mzees, in their English suits or tribal robes...
    • 2005, Ernest Hemingway, Robert William Lewis, Under Kilimanjaro‎
      It is difficult to be both and the older mzees resent the irregularity of the position.
    • 2006, Edward I Steinhart, Black poachers, white hunters: a social history of hunting in colonial Kenya‎
      ...we arranged an impromptu interview with this reluctant and less than candid local mzee, who lived near the Tsavo boundary.

Anagrams


Swahili

Etymology

From -zee (old).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /mˈzɛː/

Noun

mzee (m-wa class, plural wazee)

  1. elder, respected old person
  2. title of respect to anyone older than oneself, including parents

Adjective

mzee

  1. M class inflected form of -zee.
  2. U class inflected form of -zee.